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We certainly had an interesting journey by minibus to Kep, Cambodia.We were picked up from our hotel with a some tourists already sitting on the minibus.We continued to collect a few more tourists on our way through Sihanoukville town until we had the full 14 people on board. So, we thought that was it. But no....there were more .....the driver proceeded to squeeze on 4 more tourists somehow. He asked everyone on each row of the minibus to shift up so instead of a seat for 3 persons (which was the design of the seats) it was now for 4 persons! Not only was it a very hot day, and a very tight squeeze, but the luggage wouldn't fit in the boot even with string holding it down!The driver tried forcing the boot shut but gave up and decided to push the remaining rucksacks and hand luggage under and around people's feet, even Mark sitting at the front was overloaded with bags and could just about see out of the window!Lisa was also squashed sitting at the back and couldn't put her head back due to someone's rucksack being in the way; at least she got a cool breeze from the boot that wouldn't shut!
To add to this 3 hour nightmare journey, water was leaking out from the air-conditioning vents.By the time we got to Kep, you would have thought we had got caught in a rain storm!
We seemed to be the only ones going to Kep, as the others got off at Kampot!We thought we may have made the wrong decision but felt reasonably confident as Kep was the only resort with a beach.
Kep is a coastal location, backed by hills and covered with lush jungle. It was originally built as a retreat for the French colonialists and thrived 60 years as the Khmers favourite coastal holiday resort until it fell to ruin after the Khmer Rouge regime took hold. Unfortunately a lot of the lovely buildings including the King's summer retreat had been left in ruins after the Khmer Rouge fought with the neighbouring Vietnamese who invaded in the late 1970's. In contrast, Kampot is a sleepy town with a riverfront but not a beach and is well known for its salt and pepper plantations. It is larger than Kep and appeared to be largely unscathed by the troubles that Kep endured.
Anyway, we decided to take a stroll along the beach passing the vendors selling crab which is what Kep is known for, and came across the "Beach Hotel" where we stopped for lunch. The service was appalling but the location and view were great. It's not often that the waitress takes your order while listening to her iPod, chewing gum!!
After having lunch, we made our way by tuk-tuk to the Jasmine Valley Eco-resort, which is the accommodation we booked after checking it on tripadvisor.com. We wanted to stay somewhere different for the experience. This certainly was different. After coming off the main road we were then on a muddy dirt track for 2km up to the jungle resort. The tuk-tuk just about made it up there, at one point it started sparking and cut out on us! Not long after it started again and we ended up through muddy puddles and hilly dirt tracks! The tuk-tuk couldn't go anymore due to it being too steep up hill.We walked a couple of minutes up to the resort with the help of the staff passing the tree-houses and narrow winding paths full of overgrown pretty plants.
Finally we got there. We were greeted with the sounds of the jungle high up in the mountains. We arrived at reception where we were given a lemon ice drink and made to feel really welcome by Owen, an Australian guy, who is the owner. His wife is a local Thai woman called Jasmine hence the resort's name. After having a long chat with Owen about his resort, we arrived at our bungalow where all the bricks for these buildings and the pathways were made out of mud! It was also partly open between the front wall and the ceiling to allow air to circulate.
We found our mud bungalow to be very comfortable with just a few bugs! At night, we tried not to put the light on as the bugs would fly in so we just used a torch instead.We slept in a comfortable bed with a mosquito net over us.In the morning we were woken by birds, geckos and gibbon noises!
On our first full day we met a really nice French couple staying at our resort. We decided to spend the day together and get a tuk-tuk into Kampot town about 20 minutes away. We were dropped off in town where we could walk around and have some lunch. The French couple decided to hire bicycles and cycle around town, whilst we walked and had a nice lunch in a place called Rikitikitavi.
We all met up at the tuk-tuk and were then taken to a cave with elephant shaped rock (or so the local guides suggested - we're not too sure), pepper plantations and Kep beach before making our way back to the resort. During the tuk-tuk journey, Mark thought it would be a good idea to try out some of his French!He was good at the time, but ask him now and he cannot remember the words he learnt!
Our second full day was spent at the beach where it was deserted until a few locals arrived at about 2pm. The beach isn't too bad for a small town and we weren't hassled every 2 minutes as we were in Sihanoukville. There isn't really much in Kep except for a couple of hotels and restaurants. With a bit of investment though, this could be a nice little resort (less commercialised than its bigger brother, Sihanoukville).
After arriving back at our resort, we moved to a tree house for our final day. This was really fun but just a tad too small to manoeuvre inside.We had a friend stay with us for the evening, a 1 foot gecko with its beady eyes staring at us from above; it kept appearing in the ceiling above our mosquito net.When we woke in the morning, we found brown stains on our mosquito net, I can only think it was the gecko doing a poo! Mark had woken up at 5am to take some sunrise photos from the balcony while Lisa was having some sleep.
The evenings at this resort were spent sitting in the reception/dining area listening to the noises and watching the long legged spiders. This resort had a very relaxed and cosy feel about it.It was a little scary in the evening walking about as you would never know what might jump in front of you! Owen the owner was a great host as well as his colleagues. During our stay, he had his niece staying with him. We really liked her funny facial expressions as she looked so cute with trendy dresses and pigtails! She was a two year old Thai girl with bundles of personality.
During our stay, we had a pizza evening and received a free starfruit pizza covered in a yoghurt coating. It was lovely but very sweet. Another evening, before receiving the dinner we ordered, Owen appeared with a plate of barbequed meat. It turned out to be 2 cooked jungle rats that were caught from bungalow number 5 (thankfully we only stayed in 4 and 7!!). Mark ate some of the rat with the other guests but Lisa just had a lick!!Owen's business partner Scott arrived on our last day and we sat chatting to him all night about his adventures and his plan for building more bungalows and treehouses next to Owen's. We are sure that we will be back at some point in the future.
We had already booked our 12-hour transfer across the Cambodia/ Thai border onto Pattaya from Kep for the following morning. We had asked three times what time we would be picked up by and were told by the small tour operator in town that it would be 7:30am. At 7:15am, the tuk-tuk driver arrived and said that we need to be on the minibus in Kep town by 7:30am!!!! Mark was still in the shower and the cases hadn't been fully packed yet. So much for us asking about the pick-up time. We got to the minibus in time.....just before it was about to leave. We were a little red faced as we had held the others up but explained that it wasn't our fault. The transfer to Pattaya was achieved using five modes of transport (tuk-tuk, minivan, taxi, bus, minivan). The worst part was the bus as we were wedged into the back with the air conditioning not working. You can guess what it was like as even a local Thai woman was complaining.......from the back of the bus she was shouting to the driver. It was actually quite funny although we don't exactly know what she was saying as it was in Thai but the locals were laughing. When someone got off she moved to the front. We had more room but still no aircon.
We crossed the Thai border with relative ease, if a little slow. It was sad to say goodbye to Cambodia but we know that we will be back some day. The journey continues.........
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